The invention described herein relates to a method of bonding diamonds in a support matrix and articles of manufacture formed from the resulting matrices. More particularly, it relates to a method of first fluorinating the diamonds and then bonding said fluorinated diamonds in a matrix of a desired material such as a fluorocarbon resin.
Diamond is the most versatile abrasive material known. Diamond dust or grit of varying sizes is used extensively in industry for grinding, sawing, drilling, honing, dressing, lapping (preparing very smooth surfaces), and polishing. While certain of these operations, such as lapping and polishing, may readily be performed with the diamond abrasive in a loose powder form, the others typically require the diamond grit to be bonded in a matrix which in turn is formed into a tool in which the grit has geometrically undefined, i.e., random, cutting edges. The matrices are typically formed of resins or metal claddings.
The term "bonded" is somewhat of a misnomer when applied to diamonds. The surface of a diamond is smooth and dense and does not readily form adhesive bonds. This is generally true of all of the hard, refractory solids. As a consequence, there is a tendency in present resin bonded matrices for the diamond grit to pull free and also at heavy grit loadings for the matrices to crack and separate at high stresses. These problems are avoided by metal laminated matrices which, however, are quite expensive compared to resin matrices.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of bonding diamonds in a support matrix.
Another object of the invention is to provide articles of manufacture produced from diamonds bonded in a support matrix.
A further object of the invention is to provide resin bonded diamond grinding wheels which are less susceptible to cracking and separating under heavy stress loads.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a method of bonding diamonds in a support matrix by standard hot pressing techniques.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.